Ally Bank Surveys Customer on Bank Fees

The recent survey asked customers what they consider the least acceptable bank fees, whether they know what they're currently paying in fees and what they really want out of their banks.

In October, Detroit-based Ally Bank worked with Opinion Research Corporation to survey 1,016 adults in the U.S. about bank fees. What they found is that in general, customers don't like fees -- not a surprising discovery in light of recent outrage about debit card fees. What's more surprising, however, is that many of these same customers are not aware of how much they're currently being charged in bank fees.

When asked how much they think Americans pay in ATM fees each year, only 9 percent of respondents gave the correct answer, $7.1 billion. Most of them chose much lower amounts, between $100 million and $2 billion.

Survey respondents were also asked about which type of fees they find acceptable. Seventy-seven percent of respondents said they do not think it's okay to charge an ATM fee, 87 percent of them said that they do not believe it's acceptable to charge a fee for checking accounts, and 79 percent said they do not agree with monthly maintenance fees. In addition, 56 percent of respondents said that $0 is a "fair" ATM fee.

Upon releasing these survey results, Ally Bank took the opportunity to remind consumers that it does not charge fees for monthly maintenance or ATM usage, and that it reimburses customers for all ATM fees that other banks may charge.